Haphazardness and Happenstance
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
While Parshat Bechukotai begins with blessings im bechukotai telechu, if you walk/follow My decrees … , most of the parsha is devoted to a rebuke with a list of negative and horrific consequences if you do not follow My words. All this will be a result of asher holchu imI b’keri, that you walked/followed Me with casualness.
Besides the parallel verb of walking used for both meriting the blessings and for deserving the curses, it is important to understand the deeper meaning of keri, most easily translated as casualness. We will start with three variations in the interpretation of casualness. First, from theSifra is the notion of haphazard and erratic in one’s behavior toward Hashem. Next, from Onkelos is a refusal to come close to Hashem, a desire to remain cold in our relationship, and finally, from Ibn Ezra, Ramban and others, to refuse to recognize that Hashem ordains and runs everything, even when a punishment clearly fits the crime, and that everything we see is pure chance and coincidence. In contrast, writes Rabbi Koffman in Mishchat Shemen, a person’s entire mindset should be on doing mitzvoth with conviction and focus.
Rabbi Gamliel Rabinowitz in Tiv Hatorah quoting the Shulchan Aruch, provides us an example that illustrates focus versus haphazard mitzvah performance. When one is reciting a bracha or Birkat Hamazon, one should not at the same time be doing something else, preparing breakfast or clearing the table. Then the mitzvah becomes perfunctory and meaningless, as the mundane task occupies our thoughts. Similarly, when one says Asher Yotzar after taking care of one’s bodily functions, one should stop and concentrate on the words rather than continue on one’s way toward whatever activity we had interrupted.
Further, writes Rabbi Reiss in Meirosh Tzurim, daily mitzvoth can become so habitual that they become meaningless. Our challenge is to maintain an excitement about every mitzvah, whether it is a constant, daily mitzvah or a rare mitzvah. In other words, we should strive to maintain as much intensity for daily prayer, for example, as we do for the special prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Nevertheless, we say in our daily prayers, shetargileinu betoratecha, that You make Torah a habit with us.
How can we reconcile the positive and negative perspectives on the habituation of mitzvoth? Rabbi Reiss cites the GR”A with the thought that habits are important in forming positive personality traits, such as giving tzedakah one hundred times with one dollar each time rather than giving a single donation of $100, for the one hundred individual acts create a habit even though the total donation of the two examples is equal. But Rabbi Reiss goes further. While habit can create mindlessness, that very mindlessness to the mechanics of a mitzvah has the ability to free us to concentrate on the deeper meaning of the mitzvah. For example, when we observe the laws of Shabbat mechanically, refraining from turning lights on or off, and eating festive meals, we are free to contemplate the deeper spiritual meaning of Shabbat and raise our Shabbat experience to a whole new level.
Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman in Ohel Moshe, is more likely to translate keri as erratic. When one begins picking and choosing which mitzvah one is going to perform based on convenience, or comfort level, or personal preference, then one is not practicing God’s Torah but substituting one’s own Torah.
In Halekach Vehalebuv Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr cites the Chasam Sofer and notes that one of the reasons given for the destruction of the Beit Hamikdosh was that Bnei Yisroel did not recite the Blessing on the Torah. This seems a rather harsh punishment. Yet, as Rabbi Schorr discusses this idea more deeply, he explains that the omission of the blessing does not occur in a vacuum, but is rather part of an entire lifestyle in which Torah does not take center stage and infuse one’s life with its life force. While other things take precedence, business or pleasure, Torah study and observance become casual moments in one’s life rather than the force which propels us to walk/move forward.
The Torah tells us vechai bohem, that we should live in/through the mitzvoth. Rabbi Frand expands on this idea. Using the example of a home with multiple rooms, Rabbi Frand quoting Rav Hutner, suggests that we tend to live in the well furnished room rather than in the sparse one. Similarly, if we define ourselves by our job, for example, the job will get most of our effort, the furnishings of our lives. But if we define ourselves as Yona Hanavi did with ivri anochi, I am a Jew, then our major efforts will be to furnish that part of our lives, to make our Judaism and mitzvah observance the most comfortable and inviting aspect of our lives, hopefully, inviting the presence of God into our homes and into our lives.
Mitzvoth are supposed to be our life force, the path that we walk on to achieve the closeness to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, continues Rabbi Schienerman. As such, we should want to give it the attention to detail it deserves, just as we would give any other important aspect of our lives. If one is a lawyer, one strategizes and spends much time on research before entering the courthouse, a businessman spends time checking the balance sheets and pros and cons of a transaction; doesn’t our mitzvah observance deserve the same scrutiny? If we are excited about our job, we should be at least as excited about our Jewishness and our relationship with Hakodosh Boruch Hu.
If one is focused on his relationship with Hashem, one will see Hashem’s guidance and providence in everything around him. Not just nature, but every step of his life offers a means to recognize Hashem’s relationship to us, writes Rabbi Koffman in Mishchat Hashemen. Eliminate the excuses that form blockages to this relationship. As Rabbi Igbe says in Chochmat Hamatzpun, recognize that every occurrence in our lives is finely orchestrated by Hakodosh Boruch Hu, just as the “coincidence” of Ruth finding herself in the fields of Boaz, a perfectly crafted piece of the puzzle to create the Davidic dynasty and the eventual Messiah. Similarly, we must also understand that every challenge we face is also tailor made to fit the puzzle of our individual lives and help us grow spiritually, writes Eliyahu Lopian. If you refuse to see God’s hand conducting the orchestra of your life, you will remain cold (kar) to Him and you will not change. You will refuse to learn from your challenges, whether they are major or minor.
Continuing this train of thought, Rabbi Lugassi in Beyam Derech writes that we must have the certainty that Hashem is controlling everything even if we cannot see the connections. With that belief, we can overcome great challenges, cross seas, and without that belief, we can’t even cross over the room to the door. This belief forms the basis for our daily morning blessings, for He is the One Who gives me sight, Who straightens my back, Who sets my feet to walk on the ground. For every one of these “natural”, small parts of life are all part of God’s divine protection. If you maintain that belief, you will avoid frustration, for you realize that Hashem is in control, and each challenge is a chance for me to grow and work on my character. If you attribute everything to chance, you run the dangerous risk of letting Hashem also leave everything to chance rather than to His divine orchestration.
Rabbi Zev Leff in Outlook and Insight cites Rambam in explaining that when a calamity strikes a community it is a positive command to call out to Hashem, and not doing so is an act of cruelty, as this refusal to acknowledge Hashem’s role will bring forth further cruelty. Rabbi Leff explains the Rambam by noting that at creation, the natural world was meant to be perfect, with no“natural” disasters. However, due to Adam’s sin, nature itself became perverted and no longer followed the original plan. Subsequent mankind, never having experienced the original, believes the current universe, with all its natural disasters, to be its natural state, much as a child who has grown up where everyone is crippled, believes that indeed all humankind is crippled.
God’s real desire, however, continues Rabbi Leff, is to bestow everlasting good upon man, and the misfortunes He brings are meant to bring us back to Him, to do teshuvah. If we view these tragedies are arbitrary, purposeless, and the whims of a cruel God, then we ourselves, in trying to emulate Him, will ourselves become cruel and arbitrary. Rather, we must see Hashem’s actions as the chastisement of a merciful parent who wants the best for his child and can find no other means of teaching him effectively than by punishing him.
The philosophy that the world operates haphazardly, where the chips fall haphazardly wherever chance takes them, would create an undisciplined life, writes Rabbi Pincus, in Tiferes Shimshon. But we have to live our lives with values, not with the indifference and coldness of keri, writes Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. We must make Hashem’s will the most important consideration in our lives. Nothing in my life must be left to chance. My work, my speech, my interactions with others must all be guided by the principles Hashem has set forth for us. With God at the center of our lives instead of at the cold, uninvolved edges, life itself takes on new, beautiful meaning.